Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Resurrection, Mind Parasites, and Transporter Errors

So, if you're still with us, you will understand how and why the Resurrection "is an event not wholly in history."

How is that? Well, "on the one hand, it is the limit of history, the frontier and boundary, the end and the beginning in one." But at the same time -- or timeless -- it must be "that very concurrence of End and Beginning 'entering the horizon of man,' appearing as the limit from which that new corporeality comes into being" (Davie).

Get it? In an analogy we have deployed before, think of a three-dimensional object passing through a two-dimensional plane. As it does so, what is a single entity in "higher" (i.e., 3-D) space will be transformed into a temporal event.

If the object is, say, a sphere, the two-dimensional event will begin with a point that then "grows" into an expanding circle. At its limit it will then begin shrinking back toward the point, before disappearing.

But the 3-D object hasn't actually gone anywhere or become anything other than what it always is: a sphere.

Likewise, God is by definition God. And if we stipulate that he is an object of "infinite dimensions," so to speak, then his passage through history is going to generate some *interesting* phenomena.

Among others (recalling the analogy above), some of his "spatial" dimensions will manifest herebelow in a temporal manner, e.g., "beginning" and "end." But as Jesus says, "I am Alpha and Omega." Down here, Alpha and Omega may appear distinct, but this is analogous to maintaining that the sphere's point and circle are separate events in time: just an uptical illusion.

Bearing this in mind, "if mankind, in all the stages of its evolution, is recapitulated in Jesus, as Iranaeus maintained, the implications of this doctrine are far-reaching and profound" (Davie), to put it mildly.

Profound because it would suggest that what we call "evolution" represents the passage of a hyperdimensional object through our 4-D world. Far-reaching because it would explain an awful lot of orthoparadoxes, wouldn't it?

One cannot help recalling John's remark that if one were to try to document the "many other things that Jesus did," "the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (21:25). I mean, right? This is precisely what one would expect, given the principle involved.

Also, if evolution is ultimately conditioned by the top, it suddenly makes sense of a doctrine that is otherwise grounded in absurdity. We'll return to this idea later, if at all.

Ah, this I like, because it suggests that God is a little like Thelonious MOnk (or vice versa):

"Resurrection shows the power of God to bring forth harmony at the extreme limits of dissonance" (ibid). They say that MOnk could bend the notes of a piano, which is reminiscent of how God somehow writes straight even with crooked liars.

Another good one: "the final term in the redemptive progression of Birth-Death-Resurrection is not another embodiment in the same environment but the same embodiment in another environment (namely, that of heaven)."

It's kind of the opposite way in which the transporter works in Star Trek:

"Transporters convert a person or object into an energy pattern (a process called dematerialization), then 'beam' it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter (rematerialization)." The transporter creates a memory file of the person's pattern, thus making it vulnerable to various transporter errors.

For example, "Scramblers distort the pattern that is in transit, literally scrambling the atoms upon rematerialization, resulting in the destruction of inanimate objects and killing living beings by rematerializing them as masses of random tissue..."

But in real life, our soul-archetype, or form, or divine clueprint, is again conditioned from the top down. It is not, and could not be, the result of matter or energy patterned in a particular way, from the bottom up.

Rather, the soul is the form of the body, which is why, even if it must always have a body, it may have "the same embodiment in another environment." At least I see no reason why this could not be so. It's like a piece of music: it can be on tape, or in vinyl, or in digital bits, but it's the same musical information "embodied" in different media.

The notion of transporter errors also illuminates the human mindscape. If we begin with the idea that the soul is a kind of trans-energy pattern, the purpose of life would be to manifest this pattern in a resistant environment we call "the world." Mind parasites would represent viral forms that get mixed up with ours, interfering with the ability to "materialize" the soul (i.e., love and create) and interiorize or assimilate the world (i.e., learn and grow).

More generally, the world will throw up all sorts of obstacles to the soul's exteriorization and actualization. Which, within certain limits, is a good thing.

Think of the analogy of sports, which couldn't exist in the absence of the gravity we must overcome in order to run, jump, or throw. Trolls and assouls are like vertical gravity. Up to a point.

Thus the purpose of our daily verticalisthenics and gymgnostics. You may now take a rest. And stay away from the scramblers!

It's like a piece of music: it can be on tape, or in vinyl, or in digital bits, but it's the same musical information "embodied" in different media.

That's pretty wild, but it makes sense. I had a pastor who said that if you could split body, soul, and spirit and see them as they are, you would not be able to tell one from the other. I don't think he even knew what he was saying, but it makes sense if it's the same data or instructions encoded in different media.

It also explains why the body is important in Christian understanding.

John said "I just have trouble understanding how He created enough wiggle room for free will given that the beginning and end and all that happened in between eternally exist"

By being economical - Try this one on for size: Free Will (which I'm a believer in), and 'The Fall' are one and the same thing.

Free Will is the means of judgment, which is also a requirement for being wrong, for being in error, for attempting to impose your own will over Reality... or for seeking the Truth, while knowing that you will Never be able to fully comprehend it.

Re. The circle and the sphere, the same is true of each individual person. That is, who we are at any given moment is only a "slice" of who we are in the totality of our lives. From the standpoint of eternity we are already whole, but yet the choices we make from one day to the next help determine the final shape of that wholeness.

I wonder what a spiral looks like in Four Dimensional space? Would one half of each turn be going 'up' and the other half 'down'?

Choice involves your observation and estimation of what is so... but there is also that aspect of 'I don't know for sure, but this seems true...'. If it is True, you are integrated into and lifted up by your participation with what is, and if wrong, separated from and falling away from all that is....

Life is just a roller coaster ride.

Would circling around be somehow spherical? Beginning & Ending, Rising & Falling, all in One.

What About Bob?

Who spirals down the celestial firepole on wings of slack, seizes the wheel of the cosmic bus, and embarks upin a bewilderness adventure of higher nondoodling? Who, haloed be his gnome, loiters on the threshold of the transdimensional doorway, looking for handouts from Petey? Who, with his doppelgägster and testy snideprick, Cousin Dupree, wields the pliers and blowtorch of fine insultainment for the ridicure of assouls? Who is the gentleman loaffeur who yoinks the sword from the stoned philosopher and shoves it in the breadbasket of metaphysical ignorance and tenure? Whose New Testavus for the Restavus blows the locked doors of the empyrean off their rusty old hinges and sheds a beam of intense darkness on the world enigma? Who is the Biggest Fakir of the Vertical Church of God Knows What, channeling the roaring torrent of 〇 into the feeble stream of cyberspace? Who is the masked pandit who lobs the first water balloon out the motel window at the annual Raccoon convention? Who is your nonlocal partner in disorganized crimethink? Shut your mouth! But I'm talkin' about bʘb! Then we can dig it!

Goround ZerO:

The Cosmic Area Rug:

The empty center is Beyond-Being. The circles are dimensions of Being. Your life is a path for the Spirit to pass from periphery to center. Thoughts and choices -- truth and virtue -- are the paving stones.

Only Error is Transmitted:

Buck Mulligan, Official Mascot

Official Sponsor of the Kosmic Kit Scouts, Laniakea Supercluster Chapter

Fuck You: War

Late last night, in search of light, I watched a ball of fire streak across the midnight sky. I watched it glow, then grow, then shrink, then sink into the silhouette of morning. As I watched it die, I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a lot in common with that light.’ That’s right. I’m alive with the fire of my life, which streaks across my span of time and is seen by those who lift their eyes in search of light to help them though the long, dark night. --Nilsson

We see that yesterday is our birthday, today is our life, and tomorrow we are gone. So we have just one day to learn all we need to know, and that day is today. --Petey